Divača–Koper is Slovenia’s largest and most important infrastructure project that has been widely debated on at both national level and in Europe. The project, which consists of the railway duplication between the two municipalities and the development of other modernisation works, will help increase the infrastructure capacity and, implicitly, freight volumes, and will significantly reduce travel times. The project implementation has faced many hindrances, both political and financial. However, the authorities have recently announced they planned to launch works by the end of this year. Regarding financing, requests for European financing have been submitted this year and EIB could cover another part of the investment while the Slovenian government will grant funds and will impose road tolls that will be exclusively redirected to the construction of the railway.
Divača – Koper railway section is part of the TEN-T network through two corridors: Baltic-Adriatic on the route (Graz) Šentilj–Maribor–Ljubljana–Koper/Trieste and Mediterranean Corridor on the route (Venice) – Trieste/Koper–Ljubljana–Pragersko–Hodoš– (Budapest). The importance of this railway is emphasised in the international rail freight traffic due to its access role to the Port of Koper and hinterland and to European countries.
In 2005, the Slovenian Government adopted a decree on the construction project of the second railway on Divača–Koper route and different initiatives for its implementation have been adopted ever since. The activities and procedures implemented by the Ministry of Infrastructure and the Slovenian Infrastructure Agency allowed the release of the construction permit for the duplication of the railway. The project objective is to provide an efficient railway connection to the Port of Koper to eliminate the limitations of infrastructure capacity, to reduce the freight transport time, to increase the reliability and safety of traffic and to attract a large freight flow to railways.
Last year, the government established the special purpose vehicle, 2DTK, to elaborate all documents necessary to the construction of the railway. Although the project faced many political hindrances, the latest being the Parliament’s request for a referendum for the adopted act (the second time) in May, Infrastructure Manager Peter Gašperšič announced that construction works will be initiated by the end of the year. The duplication of the railway will be carried out by building a 27-km section and, because of the difficult terrain and environmental constraints, 75% of its length will be built through 8 tunnels. The project also includes the construction of two viaducts and two bridges. Costs are estimated at around EUR 1 billion and works could be completed in 6 years. >
> When the line duplication project will be completed and commissioned, the distance between Divača and Koper will be reduced from 44 km to 27 km, while the travel time will be reduced from 48 minutes to 15-20 minutes. The number of trains will increase to 220/day (including the double line between Dekani power sub-station and Koper). The duplication of Dekani power sub-station – Koper section will eliminate congestion in the network on the joint section of the existing and future line. The project is independent of the general project in order to ensure a capacity increase on the existing line until the completion of the whole Divača – Koper project. Modernisation works of the existing infrastructure will increase freight volumes from 9.2 million tonnes to 15.2 million tonnes.
The financing mechanism
For the development of the project, at the beginning of the year, Slovenia announced it would try once again to get European financing through the Connecting Europe Facility. Slovenia’s submission requests a total of EUR 68.4 million, of which EUR 33.4 million from its own envelope and EUR 35 million from the funds left from other cohesion countries. Apart from its own national envelope, Slovenia hopes to win funds from the envelope pooling together the funds not distributed in the national envelops of other countries. For the construction of the railway, Slovenia estimates to receive a total European financing of EUR 250 million. After that, the Ministry of Infrastructure will elaborate an application for a mixed financial mechanism by combining the European Fund for Strategic Investments to the Cohesion Fund. “We are definitely optimistic that with the work started on these two expected calls we will get the desired amount of funding,” Infrastructure Minister Peter Gašperšič said. In May, when the National Assembly adopted for the second time the Act on investment regulation for the construction of Divača – Koper double railway, the minister said that the financing budget was limited at EUR 200 million, while the remaining amount should be covered with EU funds, contributions from the landlocked countries that use the Port of Koper and special tolls for trucks and cargoes that transit the port. Also, the European Investment Bank could allocate another share of financing. According to the ministry’s estimates, EUR 11,5 million could come from truck tolls for the vehicles that use the motorway and EUR 8.3 million from the charges on transhipping inside the port.
In the spring of 2017, EC supported Slovenia’s plan to increase financing for the modernisation of the railway connection to the Port of Koper with Divača hub through an additional truck toll.
In fact, Slovenia will build the double line between Koper and Divača through a public-private partnership involving hinterland countries (that use the Port of Koper) combined with European funds and special port transhipment charges, as well as additional truck tolls. To that end, Slovenia intends to impose a 15% toll surcharge on Koper – Ljubljana motorway, including the Ljubljana ring road, and a 5% surcharge on the section between Ljubljana and Šentrupert in the east. Infrastructure Ministry Secretary, Jure Leben, said that the extra charge would actually affect 184 km of motorway which is 30% of the country’s motorway network. The government proposed that this extra charge should be imposed for a period of 35 years (2018-2052), which means that, according to the most pessimist scenario, incomes in 2019 would be of EUR 10.5 million and would be redirected exclusively to the construction of Divača – Koper double line. “The proposal enjoys the support of the European Commission as well as the entire committee of other member states. The approval successfully concludes the procedure so there is no obstacle to Slovenia continuing with the activities for the implementation of the project,” Leben said, during the presentation on Slovenia’s plan to the Commission’s committee for infrastructure charge. Project support letters have already been signed by Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland.
This article was published in the June issue of the Railway PRO Magazine that analyses the latest and most important railway projects around the world.
by Pamela Luica
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